All of your web and social media efforts should support each other – none are a solo act. Mahone started out on a YouTube channel with 800 followers from a previous venture. he notes, “I promoted myself on Twitter and Facebook as hard as possible, nonstop.” This is a great example of engaging using your successful social platforms to boost your other vehicles. This may be your website or, in Mahone’s case, your YouTube presence.

Be social, stupid! The article notes: “’People started realizing that if they commented on my videos, I’d reply to their comment, so I started getting a lot more views and comments.’ In two months, he was up to 20,000 subscribers.” Social media is not a one-way broadcast channel. It’s a conversation between brands and fans. They are agreeing to give you a piece of their valuable social time, so you need to acknowledge and reward that effort.

Content is king! Mahone posts relentlessly, ensuring that his momentum doesn’t slow down. In the social network world, attention is currency. You have to be entertaining, relevant, and produce enough content to keep fans coming back.

I’ve never heard any on Mahone’s music, but I sure can appreciate his marketing smarts! There are a lot of college grads who could learn a thing or two about social media marketing from this high schooler.